The future of the Amazon uncertain

For ten years, the fate of Brazil’s forests have hung in the balance as the future of the Forest Code has been up for grabs. We’ve see the debate over the law come to a head over the last few years, as the agribusiness sector pressed the Congress for major changes to the law and the scientific community and 80 percent of the public opposed drastic changes to the law.

Today, President Dilma has ignored the call of the people of Brazil and taken final steps to approve a new law that opens the Amazon up for destruction.

President Dilma Rouseff announced today, approval of the provisional measures of the new Forest Code with 9 partial vetoes, making the law that has protected the Amazon for almost 70 years a thing of the past, paving the way for new areas of expansion for the agribusiness sector and granting amnesty for past forest criminals. Vetoes sound like a a drastic measure but in reality they will do nothing new to protect the Amazon.

With deforestation rates over the past few months higher than last year and with not one new provision for Amazon protection or to fight deforestation in the new Forest Code, Brazilians are taking action. In March, a petition for a zero deforestation law in Brazil was launched.

Just a few months later, over 600,000 people have signed onto the citizen’s initiative. According to Brazil’s laws, if 1.4 million people support the Zero Deforestation inititive, it could become law.

It is painfully obvious that the Amazon is crucial to our existence. We can afford to take this kind of loss. It provides so much oxygen, absorbs so much carbon and it the home to countless endangered creatures. The destruction of the Amazon is obviously a stupid move. C'mon now!!

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(Unregistered) Susan
says:

An ecological disaster.How can a country like Brazil, who is supposed to be an example of sustainability being the owner of the biggest forest in the ...

An ecological disaster.How can a country like Brazil, who is supposed to be an example of sustainability being the owner of the biggest forest in the world, the lung of the world,betray the indigenous, the Brazilian and the rest of the world?